Rising living costs: Community cookbook to help fight poverty

"The recipe book is helping make something out of nothing."

Wendy Howells, from Swansea, has contributed to a new community cookbook, made up of low cost meals suggested by residents.

Organised by the Blaen-y-Maes Drop In Centre, which gives out food to those in need, it's aim is to create more accessible and budget friendly recipes.

Ms Howells, who has received food parcels herself, said she felt "worthless" and wants to help others.

The free book, which is made up of recipes such as "mozzarella stack" and bread and butter pudding, are all recipes volunteers and locals cook for their own families.

Funded by a grant from Swansea council, the hope is it will keep being added to as suggests come in so people feel less shame asking for the support.

Wendy Howells says the book gives people something to be part of and help others in the same situation

"When you get given the food bag, you think 'I can't make anything out of that'," said Ms Howells.

"But now you'll think 'that rice they gave me six months ago, those peppers and that little bit of coriander, I can use that'."

Ms Howells is not able to work because of ill health and said her benefits do not cover the basics she needs.

"When you haven't got any money in your bank and you haven't got any money in your purse, you feel worthless."

She said coming to the centre and working on the cookbook has helped her mental health.

"If I stayed at home [my mood] can get darker and darker. Coming here you get the encouragement of being with other people who are in the same boat."

Ms Howells said it helps put her money worries into perspective, and remind her that her whole self-worth "isn't based on cash".

'The cookbook tells our stories'

Elisha Hughes has been volunteering at the centre since she was 12 and said people underestimate their abilities

The Drop In Centre is run solely by volunteers and it was one of the, Elisha Hughes, who came up with the idea of the cookbook and designed the final version.

She said it was the most inexpensive option but also, by making it themselves, the book could get people's favourite dishes and family recipes, which helped them "tell their stories".

Ms Hughes grew up in Blaen-y-Maes and has been volunteering at the Drop In Centre since 2011 when she was 12 , and said people outside do not always understand the community.

"People here feel there is a false narrative, where people are underestimated or undermined in their abilities," she said.

"It can be difficult when you're from a council estate and people think that you have nothing to give, [so] I think when you ask people to contribute to something it makes them feel empowered, which I think is really important."

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The centre has seen a rise in people needing to use their services as the cost of living has risen.

In March, the organisation FareShare, who help provide food to the centre, found 75% of the groups they support have seen an increase in demand for their services over the past year.

According to figures from the Food Foundation, an independent organisation aiming to improve food provision in the UK, 11.4% of adults in Wales said they had faced food insecurity in the six months to January 2022, a little above the UK average.

That figure did drop from 12.6% in their survey from August 2021, though price rises are expected to accelerate during 2022, according to the British Retail Consortium.

It's an issue the UK government said it recognised.

A spokesperson said: "We are doing what we can to help, including spending £22bn across the next financial year to support people with energy bills and cut fuel duty.

"For the hardest hit, we're putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families on Universal Credit, have also boosted the minimum wage by more than £1,000 a year for full-time workers and our Household Support Fund is there to help with the cost of everyday essentials."

'I am working but still struggling'

Mair Baker relies on the centre for support after losing her husband to Covid

Another contributor to the cookbook, Mair Baker said she was finding it "very hard to meet the cost of living".

Working part time at a hospital, she still needs the support of the centre to feed herself and her family after losing her husband to Covid last year.

She said people often thought if you were working you can not be struggling.

"We are just about managing to keep our heads above the water," she said.

"At the moment it is either pay your gas bill, your water bill, your council tax bill or put food in your children's stomachs.

"I went through a very dark space in time. I was so down, so lonely. If it weren't for the people up here at the centre and the community I don't think I would have survived."

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